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Experience the life-changing messages from the Church of God’s annual Winterfest youth gathering. These are the sermons, moments, and voices that have shaped generations of young believers — now available anytime, anywhere.
What an absolutely incredible weekend we are having,
are we not?
Has anyone been touched already?
Come on, come on.
The Lord's doing incredible things.
Listen to me, I don't mean that
in just some weird thing that I'm supposed to say
because I'm the one holding the microphone
and it's my job to preach.
Listen to me, the Lord is doing incredible things
in our midst and listen to me this morning.
I know it's Sunday morning.
We all lost an hour of sleep last night, but I am speaking a spirit of caffeination over you right now in the mighty name of Jesus.
Well, come on.
Well, it is my ridiculous honor to get to proclaim the word of the Lord this morning, but it would be absolutely remiss of me if I did not take a moment to do what the Bible says to do, and that is to show honor where honor is due.
and listen to me right now,
by clap of hands and standing on your feet,
if you love the angels of the Lord of this conference,
come on, if you love the bishops of this house,
come on, if you love Bishop Brian,
come on, if you love Miss Kathy,
would you get on your feet right now?
Come on, somebody.
What a ridiculous privilege.
Listen to me, I've had the privilege
of knowing them for a few years now.
I have watched them weep in the altar
as the Lord is gripping their heart.
These are people who first and foremost,
before they want to lead the church of Christ,
they wanna be a part of the church.
Before they wanna be a part of the body,
they want to lead the body.
And I'm thankful that the church of God
has incredible bishops this morning.
Come on, if you love them again,
would you clap your hands one more time?
Let's go.
I never travel alone.
And this morning I had the ridiculous privilege
of traveling with my family.
My wife and my son are here this morning.
I think we have a picture of them on the screen.
Let's go.
Come on, that is evidence
that God's been good to me right there.
And we also brought some of our dearest friends in the world,
pastors Cody and Micah Smith,
all the way from Scottsboro, Alabama.
We love you guys.
So, so thankful for you.
Again, as has already been said,
my name is Kenan Clark, and I'm an evangelist.
I have the ridiculous privilege
of traveling all over the country.
preaching the glorious message of Jesus Christ.
And listen, that is what I intend to do this morning.
Is that cool?
If not, the exits are there.
If you have a Bible, turn with me to a book of the Bible
you may have never darkened the doorstep of.
Go with me to the book of Song of Solomon.
Song of Solomon.
All the youth pastors are nervous.
They're all nervous.
The reason they're nervous and you're not
is because they've actually read Song of Solomon.
Song of Solomon, let me give you a little bit of backstory,
the context about this book.
Song of Solomon is such a provocative, mature read.
It is an adult book.
So much so that young Jewish men were not allowed to read it
until they had turned 30 years old.
This preacher gonna let you open it up early this morning.
All right, I'm doing you a favor,
but listen to me, you only get one verse.
One verse. Song of Solomon, chapter two, let's turn to verse 15. It says this,
catch all the foxes, those little foxes, before they ruin the vineyard of love,
for the grapevines are blossoming. Solomon says, catch all the foxes, those little foxes,
before they ruin the vineyard of love. Listen to me this morning. Over the next remaining moments,
I'm gonna share with you.
I'm gonna endeavor to preach a message
I'm simply calling this, Catch That Fox.
I have a, listen to me,
I feel a mandate on me this morning
to not just preach something
that's relevant to you right now.
You're on fire right now.
You cannot be not on fire
after the word that was brought by Pastor Ellie last night.
Come on, that was absolutely insane.
There's no way you're not on fire right now.
Listen to me.
The word I am preaching is here to preserve.
that fire when you are no longer at Winterfest anymore.
When there's not a worship team,
when there ain't a charity gale
to belt your way into the presence of God,
this word is going to preserve you over the next year
and ultimately I am believing the remainder
of your days on this earth.
I'm preaching a message called Catch That Fox.
Let's pray.
Father, I thank you now for the remaining moments
we are gonna share coming around your word.
Lord, I pray that you would help me magnify you.
Help me make much of you, Lord.
Lord, I thank you that there wouldn't be a person
under the sound of my voice
who would be able to escape the double-edged sword
that is your word.
Lord, that you would use that sword like a skilled surgeon.
May it be a scalpel on our hearts this morning.
There wouldn't be a one of us that would dodge this.
There wouldn't be a one of us that would try to bob
and weave this thing, Lord, I thank you that it would hit us right where we need to be hit
this morning. Preserve your people and preserve your word. And it is in the mighty name of Jesus,
I pray. Amen. Amen. I will never forget 10 years ago. I know I look like I'm 19,
but a week from today, I turned 30 years old. A week from today, I turned 30. 316 is my birthday.
Okay, but I'll never forget, I was 19 years old
and I was at Bible college, okay?
I do come with credentials this morning,
not just tattoos, I have credentials, all right?
I went to a Bible college in Dallas, Texas
and I'll never forget one day,
I was doing my absolute favorite thing to do
at Bible college and that was I was shopping.
Do I got any shoppers in the house of the Lord this morning?
Come on somebody, you've been buying that merch, love it.
So I'll never forget, like I was at the mall doing my thing, and I went to my favorite store, and I went to my favorite section of my favorite store.
I'm here to testify this morning, my favorite section of any store is a little section called clearance.
I love that clearance rack.
Okay, my middle name ought to be clearance.
All right.
So I'm over there in the clearance section rummaging through, and I find this shirt, and it is the sickest shirt.
It is a black shirt, and on this black shirt are these black little designs, details, decals on the shirt, black on black.
They were so small, I couldn't quite tell what I was looking at.
Like, I didn't really know what was on the shirt, but I was like, it doesn't matter.
This shirt is sick. I'm buying it.
So I took it up to the counter.
I give the lady a $10 bill, and I walk out of there.
The next day, I went to Bible college, and you bet your bottom dollar, your boy was wearing his new shirt.
So I go to the first thing we have that morning, and it was something called chapel, chapel.
It's essentially just a massive church service, probably about 1,500 young people going hard after God, right?
And I'm somewhere out in the mass sea of people, and I'm wearing this new shirt, and I am giving what Hebrews would call a sacrifice of praise.
There's praise, and then there's a sacrifice of praise.
I mean, my whole body is getting involved, going after God.
I'm like every appendage I have is going after God.
I'm trying to flag heaven down.
Okay, I am going after the Lord.
After that, we had a theology class.
So I wander over to my theology class.
I'm sitting at my desk.
I'm taking good notes of the Bible
that my professor is teaching
and all in my new shirt.
Later that day, my mom and dad
had arranged a little visit to meet up with me.
Now, what you gotta understand about my mom and my dad
is they are pastors.
I am a PK
do I have any PKs in the house
this morning?
bless God
we gotta stick together
I'm a PK
so my pastor dad
comes to visit me
at Bible college
so we have this little location
we were gonna meet at
I remember I met up with my dad
and my dad took one look at me
and he said son
is that a new shirt?
I said yes dad it is
now I flexed on my dad
because you have to understand
to my dad's face
we call him frugal. Behind his back, we tell it like it is, he cheap. The
man is a
cheapskate,
is what he is. So I was like, dad, it was on clearance. It was on clearance, dad. You'd be
so proud of me. And he said, son, that's great. Have you looked at it? I said, dad, what? Yeah,
of course I've looked at it. He said, son, did you really look at that shirt? I said, dad,
what are you trying to tell me right now?
He said, son, I hate to break it to you,
but there are marijuana leaves all over that shirt.
I said, what?
And I looked down and the little designs,
details, decals that were black on the shirt
couldn't tell what they were.
Yeah, it's hemp.
It is cannabis all over my shirt.
And then I realized I had gone to chapel
in a marijuana shirt.
Like all the students are like,
Kenan's feeling something
and I don't think it's the spirit.
I don't think it's the spirit on this young man.
Deliverance team.
I realized then I had gone to my theology class.
I was wondering why my professor asked
how long I had been saved.
You know, like I was like,
what is this about?
I'm here every day, you know,
in a marijuana shirt.
I had confidently dapped my pastor dad up
in a marijuana shirt.
You see, here's what I'm trying to get you to see.
I didn't realize what I had bought into,
let alone what I was actively walking in
because the details were so small.
The details were so small.
Listen to me.
The nefarious little details
were able to skate right under my radar
and I found myself in cahoots with something
that had I known really what I was buying into,
I would have opted out.
I would have said, heck no,
that's not something I wanna be a part of,
but the details were able to slide right under my nose.
And listen, I tell you that story this morning
because I think it is exactly what Solomon
is trying to say in Song of Songs chapter two.
Solomon says, catch all the foxes.
By the way, they're little foxes.
Solomon, the wisest man outside of Christ
to ever walk this planet,
is trying to give you a little wisdom this morning,
saying this, hey, guys, as you leave Winterfest,
it's not just the big bad wolves you gotta worry about.
It's not just those big bad gnarly things
that you quintessentially here preached on.
It's these things that you could be tempted
in light of what God has already delivered you from
to think, ah, this is just some small,
some small thing.
And God has this weekend delivered people from massive addictions, from mental illness.
God has delivered people.
I believe there's been healing.
But listen to me.
When the enemy sees God moving in a massive way, the enemy changes his tactic and begins to move in small ways.
And he sends what Solomon calls little foxes.
Let me help you out.
these little foxes are the places where you could go.
In light of, like, wait, it's 2025.
In light of where we're at as a society,
in light of what's all going on in our world,
in light of everything you're seeing going on in culture,
what I'm doing, it ain't that bad.
Like, at least I still identify as a male.
And praise God.
Don't miss what I'm trying to say.
I'm saying it's easy to go, at least.
At least.
Listen to me.
If there is an at least in your walk with God,
you're tolerating a little fox.
You're tolerating a place that, listen to me,
if you're not careful,
it is trying to sabotage something beautiful.
Now, the plot thickens.
Because listen to me, Solomon tells us
what the foxes are after.
Solomon makes no mistake.
He says, hey guys, catch all the foxes,
the little foxes, because why?
They're gonna ruin the vineyard
for the grapevines are blossoming.
I remember I was reading this passage recently
and these two words, vineyard and grapevines,
jumped off the page to me.
And the reason they jumped off the page to me
is because I've read John 15
where Jesus calls himself the vine.
Jesus in John 15 famously says,
I am the vine.
You are the branches.
Apart from me, you can do nothing.
All of a sudden I realized
if we allow a little hermeneutic,
if we allow a little scripture
to help us interpret scripture,
we can realize that King Solomon
may not have known what vine he was talking about,
but the spirit that inspired the pen of Solomon
knew one day there is coming a vine to the earth
and he is a true vine.
And if my people tolerate little foxes,
they are gonna try to uproot him from their life.
What I'm trying to say, let me not mince words.
What I'm trying to say is these little foxes,
they don't want you to just be a vaping, cussing Christian.
That's not their most nefarious plot.
These little foxes are on assignment from hell
to uproot the vine of your life.
It's not that they want you to be a compromising Christian.
They want you to throw the whole Christian thing away.
That's what they're after.
And some of you could be like,
Kenan, why in the world are you trying
to make sure we stay Christian?
Why in the world are you trying to preach this message?
It's because you don't realize what's after you.
You've not been to as many conferences as I have.
You've not met as many young people as me.
Listen, you know what?
I have anecdotal evidence
that you can be at an altar,
at a Winterfest,
worshiping God with seemingly all your heart
and two years later want nothing to do with that God.
I have watched it.
And yes, I know the statistics.
I know the stats say that since the year 2000,
30 million Christians have left the faith.
But it's not the statistics that keep me up.
it's the young people I've laid my hands on
it's the young people I have personally discipled
I had the privilege of teaching the word of God
and after a long time I see them begin to wander
to the point where they are questioning
whether they want to go the distance with Jesus or not
what I'm trying to get you to see is
I don't know if you've come out of your little hole in a while
but we are watching a mass move away
from orthodox doctrinal Christianity.
And what people are beginning to do
is they are taking this holy book
and they are perverting it and twisting it
so that they can live in their own perversions.
Oh, well, you know, if you study the culture,
it wasn't actually talking about homosexual lifestyle.
It was talking about this.
I thought the Bible said,
they that live that way
shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
it don't take a PhD
to understand this thing
it takes a humble heart
that says God
oh God gets my heart
yeah he gets it's wicked and evil
and it needs the truth of his word
to be purified
he washed his bride
with the word
is what my Bible says
that's how we get cleaned up
we get washed by his word
it's no wonder
when we begin to make excuses
for why we're dirty
when we begin to make excuses
for why we don't need to change
we begin to twist
the words of God
to fit our preference
listen to me
you know how I know
the number one tactic
to get you to leave the church
is to attack what you believe about Jesus
my Bible says this
you want to scatter the sheep?
Strike the shepherd.
That's what my Bible says.
You want to watch sheep scatter?
Go after the shepherd.
Attack who the shepherd is in their mind.
And listen to me, the enemy hit the shepherd one time physically on the cross,
but every day you wake up, he's trying to strike that shepherd again in your heart.
And listen to me this morning, what I'm trying to get you to understand
is that who Jesus is, the validity of who he is to you
is what matters most about you.
So listen, if you are at least half educated,
there's no way the enemy can come to you and say,
hey, you know what, this guy, Jesus of Nazareth,
yeah, yeah, yeah, he's completely made up.
But he's fake.
He's a fictitious figure.
There's no way.
If you're half educated, there's no way you would fall for that lie.
Why?
Because we have five secular documents.
We call them extra biblical, meaning they aren't in the Bible.
Five secular ancient documents that verify what Holy Scripture has said about Jesus of
Nazareth, that he really lived when the Bible says he lived, he died when the Bible says
he died, and for what the Bible says he died for.
five secular extra-biblical documents.
But as if that's not enough, let's think about this.
It is the year 2025.
You know why it's the year 2025?
Because 2025 years ago,
a Middle Eastern carpenter named Jesus of Nazareth was born.
I've got news for you.
You don't get all of time dictated by when you were born
and not be born.
like I made it out of high school by the skin of my teeth but I can do that math
like you know that that that that that don't make no that don't make no sense you have to at least
have been born for all of time to be dictated by that event so listen to me what the enemy will say
is this he'll say okay okay okay yeah Jesus was a real guy but he wasn't really God
yeah like Jesus was a real dude but but but but he wasn't divine this is the lie being preached
and propagated to our generation oh yeah he was a historical figure but he wasn't God listen I've
had people up in my comment section saying this Kenan um the bible doesn't claim Jesus is God
I have had people up in my comments
saying that.
And you know what I would say to that person,
brother, sister, whoever you are saying that to me?
I would say, who messed with your Bible?
Because listen to me,
that doesn't just mean you have a few verses
somebody must have like whited out.
You've got whole passages removed from your book.
I mean, let's think about this.
John chapter one, verse one says,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
He came as a witness to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light.
the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world he was in the world and the
world was made through him yet the world did not know him he came to his own people and his own
people did not receive him but to all who did receive him who believed in his name he gave the
right to become children of god who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the
will of man but of God and the word became flesh and he dwelt among us and we have seen his glory
glory is of the only son from the father full of grace and truth I'll keep going John bore witness
about him and cried out this was he of whom I said he who comes after me ranks before me because he
was before me for from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace for the law was given
through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God,
who is at the Father's side. He has made him known.
You must have all 18 of those verses ripped out your Bible if you think the Bible doesn't claim
Jesus is God. You must have John chapter 10 and verse 30 ripped out your Bible where Jesus says,
I and the Father are one.
Not to mention John 14 and verse 9,
where Jesus says, if you've seen me,
you have seen the Father.
Let's not forget Colossians chapter 1 and verse 15,
where the apostle Paul writes,
he is the image of the invisible God.
Oh, let's not forget an entire chapter,
John 17, Jesus' longest recorded prayer,
in which he prays that you and I
would share the same glory he and the Father
had in the beginning of time.
You think the Bible doesn't claim Jesus is God?
You got a Jehovah's Witness Bible.
That's what you got.
Come back to the fold.
Remove yourself from that wicked cult
and come back to the truth.
So listen, all of a sudden you come with that
and the enemy goes, well, dang.
Okay, didn't realize you knew the word.
Okay, well, but did he prove it?
That's what the enemy will say.
Did Jesus prove he's God?
And over the remaining moments we're gonna share,
I wanna leave you with three unique evidences
as to why I believe Jesus is God in human form.
Some of you are wondering why in the world
did we stick around, wait, you know,
delay our 10-hour drive in order to hear a sermon preached convincing us that Jesus is the incarnate
Son of God. It's because you don't know what's after you when you leave this place.
Let me remind you, the greatest threat to American Christianity is not America. It's the American
pulpit. The greatest threat to our church is not that which is without, but that which is within.
And when this pulpit, this sacred desk has verses, it will and will not preach.
We are in trouble.
I'm tired of preaching sermons, telling you what to believe and not telling you why you ought to believe it.
Just repeat it.
Oh, just trust me.
I'm the expert.
I'm in front of all the people.
No, I want you to have confidence.
And why Jesus Christ is the anchor for your soul.
The first evidence I want to leave you with is this.
The miracles of Jesus.
Jesus' miracles.
Now, you cannot read the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
and come away believing Jesus never did any miracles.
Like, the miracles are recorded in all four Gospels.
Now, the cool thing about the Gospels is there's the first three,
we call them the synoptics, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and then there's the last one, the Gospel of John,
which was the last Gospel written.
And Matthew, Mark, and Luke all cover very similar stories,
while John covers some different stuff that the other three did not mention.
But here's the thing I find interesting.
All four mention miracles.
There ain't one gospel writer that said,
actually, I never saw him do a miracle.
All four testify of the miracle working power
of Christ Jesus.
And there's so much I could say about the miracles,
but I'll leave it to this.
Listen to me.
You know what testifies to me
that Jesus actually did miracles?
It's this.
Jesus did his most miraculous things
right under the nose of his greatest skeptics.
Can I be real?
That's not how I would have started my miracle ministry.
You know how I would have started it?
I would have said, hey Ellie,
go and find all my dumbest followers.
You know, the people who are gullible, right?
Easy to trick.
Go and find all of them
and let's get them in the back
and have a private meet and greet with them.
And then I'll do the whole pull my thumb off trick
and we'll send them out in the lobby saying,
he's a miracle worker.
That's how I would have done it, right?
That's how I would have done it.
Not Jesus.
You know what Jesus in essence says?
He says, where's the most intelligent skeptic?
Bring that guy close.
I'll do a miracle right in front of his face.
And here's my challenge to you.
Go throughout the gospels and find me one time
any of Jesus' skeptics questioned the legitimacy
of the miracle they watched him do.
Can I save you some time?
You won't find it.
There is not one time Jesus goes,
your hand was withered and now it's not.
And then a Pharisee goes, wait.
It still looks withered to me, boys.
There's not one time that happens.
You know what the Pharisees do when Jesus does miracles?
They go, dang.
But you did it on the Sabbath.
That's what they say.
Notice they're testifying.
You did it.
it really happened
I watched it with my own eyes
but I don't like the day you did it on
you did it on a special day
and you shouldn't have done that
this is how juvenile
Jesus' skeptics have to get
in fact it gets worse one time
they come up and they go
you know what I heard how Jesus can cast out the devil
you know how he does it
he does it by the power
of the devil
he casteth out Beelzebub
power of Beelzebub. And I love that Jesus could have let this go, but he goes, nope, I'm getting
into this one. Come here, boys. And he says, guys, guys, guys, let me, let me, let me, let me explain
something to you. If Satan is casting out Satan by the power of Satan, then that means Satan's house
is divided against itself and a house divided against itself cannot stand. Jesus is saying,
Yo, jokers, your logic ain't logicking.
He's like, go get a coherent argument.
You'll find me on the other side of the lake.
Let's go, boys.
That's in essence what you see Jesus do over and over.
Here's what I'm trying to say.
Over and over and over,
the people who wanted to prove Jesus
to be a false prophet couldn't.
And you know what to me testifies
of the miracle working power of Christ Jesus?
It's not just the miracles I read about
in four books of the Bible and then also the book of Acts,
but it is the miracle sitting under my voice this morning
that I promise you begin to peruse the aisles
of this incredible conference and you ask people
to testify of what they've watched the Lord do
in their lives and you will hear miracle story
after miracle story after miracle story
because Jesus Christ is still a miracle working God
to this day.
Listen, what you don't know is that right now
My wife and I are contending for the miracle working power of Christ Jesus to hit our home.
My son has been battling seizures since June.
Two weeks ago, I was preaching in Atlanta and he had one on the front row.
We've watched so much progress.
Our faith isn't in doctors.
Our faith isn't in the medicines.
Our faith is in the fact that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is still a miracle working God.
and he cares about my son
and he's got good plans for him.
Come on, he's still a miracle working God to this day.
Jesus' miracles are an evidence to me.
The second evidence I wanna leave you with is this,
the fulfillment of prophecy Jesus did.
Jesus' fulfillment of prophecy.
Now, listen to me.
let me kind of break the Bible down for you
just in case you weren't aware of how this thing works.
The Bible is comprised of two sections.
You've got something called the Old Testament
and then you've got something called the New Testament.
And let me tell you about this Old Testament.
This Old Testament is written over thousands of years
by a bunch of different guys, listen,
who never met each other.
That's the thing you forget.
They weren't all in a small group conspiring.
how can we prophesy about this dude
who hasn't even been born yet?
No, it's almost as if the same spirit of God
that spoke to one in one generation
began to lead the next one
in his puzzle piece of his generation.
That's what my Bible says,
that each member of the Old Testament
prophesied as the spirit blew them along.
That's what the scriptures say.
And each prophet in the Old Testament
prophesied about one man.
and that one man, listen to me, is Jesus of Nazareth.
Now, many of you could probably think,
okay, maybe Jesus fulfilled a prophecy or two,
but they're probably easy to fulfill.
Like I bet lots of Jewish guys would fit the criteria.
They're just not as famous as Jesus,
so we don't attribute the feat to them.
We attribute it to Jesus because he got famous.
Okay, all right, I'll give you that.
But listen to me, greater minds than you and I put together
did the math on the probability
of Jesus being able to pull this off.
There was a man by the name of Peter Stoner.
He was a professor of science and mathematics
and he loved the Lord with all his heart.
And all of a sudden he began to read the Old Testament
and he began to realize that the Old Testament
is full of prophecies about Christ.
And he began to wonder,
I wonder what the mathematical probability is
that one man could fulfill any given number
of these Old Testament prophecies.
So this man, Peter Stoner, got together 600 undergrad and graduate level students together.
And he said, okay, guys, we're going to run the numbers.
What are the numbers on one man being able to fulfill any given number of prophecies?
And they're like, okay, we're going to start low.
What are the odds one guy could fulfill only eight of the prophecies?
So they begin to run the numbers.
And the numbers come back.
that for one man to only fulfill eight of the prophecies,
it is one in 100 million billion.
I don't know how math works in the church of God,
but where I come from, we call that long odds.
Those are not good odds, okay?
Well, one in 100 million billion.
The equivalent of this would be
as if I took a one inch square piece of tile
and I was to say, hey guys,
with a one inch square piece of tile,
we are going to tile this entire event center
in one inch square pieces of tile.
So all of a sudden we pause the service,
we get these little one inch square tiles out
and then we go and buy some grout
and all of a sudden we move the chairs
and we go to work, tiling the entire auditorium
and then we get done with the auditorium
and I'm like, guys, I still got a lot
of like one inch square pieces of tile.
So we're like, okay, let's tile all of Pigeon Forge
in one inch square pieces of tile.
So we go to work,
tiling all of Pigeon Forge
in one inch square pieces of tile.
And then we get done with Pigeon Forge
and I'm like, guys, I still got a lot of tile left.
Let's tile all of Tennessee
in one inch square pieces of tile.
So we tile the entire state
in one inch square pieces of tile.
And I still have a couple tile left.
So I'm like, guys, okay, let's go big here.
Get your faith up.
What we're gonna do is we're going to tile
all of North America.
Make America tiled again.
It's a campaign I'd rally around.
Let's go.
So all of a sudden we begin this endeavor.
We begin to tile all of North America
in one inch square pieces of tile.
And then we get done with North America
and I'm like, hey, let's go to South America.
Let's go on a world tour.
Let's go on to South America.
And then I'm like, okay, guys, let's go and tile Europe.
Then we get done tiling Europe.
And I'm like, okay, let's tile Asia, big continent.
We tile Asia.
Then we go down and we tile Africa.
Then we head over and we tile Australia.
Then we go and buy a thick jacket
because it's gonna be cold when we tile Antarctica.
You literally, listen, you literally tile
every piece of land on earth
in one inch square pieces of tile.
But the secret is this, on the back of one of them,
I put a gold star.
And then I come and find you and I say,
hey, I need you to go and survey all those tiles.
But the secret is this, the kicker is this,
you can only bend down, pick up and turn over one of them.
And it better be the one I put a gold star
on the bottom of.
This is the mathematical probability
that one man could fulfill eight prophecies, long odds.
So obviously Peter Stoner's like stoked.
He's like, whoa, talk math to me, right?
He's like, wow.
So all of a sudden he was like, all right, let's try again.
Let's not just settle with eight.
Let's try 48.
So all of a sudden they up it and they're like, okay, what are the numbers for one man to fulfill 48 prophecies?
And the numbers come back.
That for one man to fulfill 48 prophecies, it is one in one trillion.
Trillion.
Trillion.
Trillion.
Trillion.
Trillion.
Trillion.
Trillion.
Trillion.
Trillion.
Trillion.
trillion, trillion. You literally have to say the word trillion 13 times. One in one trillion to the
power of 13. The equivalent of this would be as if I took a pair of tweezers and I were to pull out
of the sky one atom and I were to take that one atom and I were to spray paint it gold. And then
when I were to take that one gold atom and I were to put it inside a space, the equivalent to one
trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, billion
times the size of our known universe.
Then I come and find you.
And I say, hey, you thought the last one was a doozy?
God has given me a weird favor
with a man named Elon Musk, okay?
I need you to hop up in this rocket.
Mr. Musk has loaned us a rocket.
And I need you to survey this space
that is one trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, billion
times the size of our known universe.
but here's the kicker.
You can only open your porthole one time
and use your tweezers to pull in one atom
and it better be the atom I spray painted gold.
This is the mathematical probability
one man can fulfill 48 Old Testament prophecies.
Listen to me.
I came to Winterfest with good news.
Jesus did not fulfill 48.
Do you know how many Old Testament prophecies Jesus fulfilled?
Over 300.
come on church of God
over 300
the real number is
listen to me there ain't an illustration
I can conjure up where I create a space
big enough and matter small enough
to send you exploring
to equate to what Jesus did
but listen to me church of God
it doesn't change that
he did it
Jesus crossed every T
He dotted every I.
He fulfilled every prophecy.
You know why?
Because he knew your eternity hung in the balance.
Had Jesus only fulfilled 323 prophecies,
you know what we couldn't call him?
The perfect lamb of God.
He could be a striking lookalike to the lamb of God.
He could be an almost lamb of God.
He could be a lamb of God doppelganger,
but we couldn't call him the perfect lamb of God.
and your sins require a perfect, spotless lamb
to be forgiven.
So Jesus says, I'll do for you
what you could never do for yourself.
I'll step in.
I'll live the life you couldn't live
and I'll die the death you should have died
so I could stand here and give you my righteousness
in exchange for your filth.
That's called the gospel.
And Jesus, listen to me, fulfilled everything.
the Old Testament required of the Messiah
so he could be your Messiah.
And that is an evidence to me.
And finally, I'm already a little overdue.
I get a long winded and I'm just so excited
about what God's gonna do in your life in the days to come.
If I can have somebody play on the keys,
it will pressure me to close.
Make me sound spiritual.
The last evidence, listen to me, I'll go quick.
The last evidence I wanna leave you with is this.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Listen to me, Paul would say this,
that without the resurrection,
we are to be most pitied of all people.
We are up a creek without a paddle
if the resurrection didn't happen.
And I've heard the resurrection preached
just about every way it can be preached.
I told you, I'm a pastor's kid.
I've been around the block a couple times.
And I've heard the resurrection preached so many ways
for out of Matthew 28.
I personally have never heard anyone preach it
out of Matthew 28
because I always thought it was just Peter, James, and John
who went and testified of Jesus's bodily resurrection.
But it wasn't just Peter, James, and John.
I also knew that it was a couple of Jesus's female followers
who went and testified that Jesus was alive and well.
But in Matthew 28,
we find out it wasn't just a couple of Jesus's female followers.
what we find out in Matthew 28
is that there were two Roman guards
put on patrol outside of Jesus' tomb
and they were told under pain of death
you don't let anyone tamper with this tomb
and my Bible in Matthew 28 fact check me
it says this that on the morning of the third day
all of a sudden an angel began to descend
and upon descending the angel began to roll
the stone away.
And upon rolling the stone away, this angel
then sits on the stone like a G.
G because it's probably Gabriel. Sits
on the stone like a G.
And my Bible
says that a resurrected
Jesus had
vacated that tomb. And you know
what happened to those Roman soldiers? When
Jesus resurrected, you know what they didn't do?
They didn't try to kill him again.
They didn't try to resurrect
him again. They didn't grab him and say,
hey, our leaders would want you dead again.
You know what they did upon seeing Jesus' resurrected body?
They fell on the ground and they pretended to be dead
under the holy fear that came over them.
That moment was so real, so tangible, they couldn't deny it.
They said, we'd rather be disloyal to Rome
than disrespect and tamper with the resurrected king
that just walked out this tomb.
And that's what I'm praying happens to you.
I'm praying that you encounter a resurrected king
to the point that when you leave Winterfest,
you're no longer loyal to the wicked powers
and powers that be that you used to show loyalty to.
You say, no, my eyes have seen, my ears have heard,
my lips have been cleansed.
I have been resurrected myself.
I am loyal to only King Jesus.
That's what I'm praying.
Listen to me, that's what I'm praying would happen to you.
So the Bible says that these Roman soldiers,
They get up and they scurry over to the high priest, Caiaphas.
And they say, Caiaphas, Caiaphas, he did it.
Like he really did it.
It wasn't a lie.
It wasn't a weird Jewish folktale.
Like Jesus actually, he got out the grave.
And you know what your Bible says, Caiaphas said in Matthew 28?
He says, you better never tell that story ever again.
And he says, you know what?
We're gonna pay you a lot of money to tell this story.
You fell asleep.
And upon falling asleep,
his disciples had to have come and stolen his body.
And then he says this,
and if your superiors give you grief about falling asleep,
don't worry, we'll pay them off too.
And then Matthew writes this in Matthew 28.
Listen to me, Matthew didn't write his gospel the next day.
He wrote it years after the fact.
This is not the morning after the resurrection.
Years later, he says,
I need to write down an account
of what I watched Jesus do in those three and a half years
and what I've seen his spirit do since then.
He begins to write.
and in Matthew 28 he says you know what the lie Caiaphas paid them to paid them to tell
I still hear it to this day that's what that's what Matthew says he said this story that they
were paid to tell I still hear it being preached I still hear it being whispered people are still
trying to keep that lie alive you know why that lie had to be kept alive for decades it's because
the truth of the resurrection was spreading like wildfire. Everyone's getting converted to
Christianity. So they had to try to keep the lie alive. Listen to me, go to Rome today. Go to Rome.
You'll find the Colosseum. You know what used to happen in the Colosseum? They would feed
Christians to lions for sport. They would take Christians and make their children watch as they
sawed them in half for their belief in Jesus Christ.
The evil emperor Nero at the time,
in charge of the whole Roman empire,
you know what he would do
when he wanted to have a dinner party?
He would grab a couple of Christians,
stick them up on this pole in a cage
and light them on fire so that he could eat by candlelight.
That's what Nero did.
Go to that ground today.
Nero and his fingerprints are gone in his empire with him.
The Colosseum is nothing but a tourist destination that's almost in complete ruin.
But I promise you, you begin to interpret the Italian being spoken at the base of that Colosseum,
and you will hear, Jesus Christ is Lord.
Repent and believe the gospel.
What I'm saying is, they killed the messenger, but they couldn't stop the message.
It is alive and well today.
And as the band comes, listen to me.
I grew up, I knew that Jesus followers died
for their belief in Jesus,
but I didn't really know why.
I thought they died, listen to me, hang with me,
this will blow your mind.
I thought they died for simply believing in Jesus.
That's not what church history teaches.
No, they died for something far more specific
than a rando belief in a carpenter.
Then they died for something far more threatening to roam
than just getting together and shaking and rattling
and rolling in our upper rooms
and telling a couple of cute stories Jesus told.
No, they died for defending something
so much more powerful than that.
Rome didn't have a problem with the parables.
Rome didn't have a problem
with our little meeting with tongues of fire.
You know what Rome had a problem with?
They had a problem with this message of the resurrection.
Every disciple died, not for believing in Jesus,
but for refusing to say the resurrection was fake.
They said, I would rather you kill me than deny the physical resurrection I saw with my own eyes.
Go and study modern psychology.
Modern psychology would teach you it is impossible for the human psyche to die for what it knows is a lie.
It is an impossibility if you know you're lying and under pain of death, if you just tell the truth, you can leave.
You'll tell the truth every time.
And every disciple, not just one, not just two,
every disciple, when Rome said,
if you'll say it was all fake,
if you lead us to where you put his body
and we can put this little myth to death,
if you'll tell us it was fake, we'll let you live.
And you know what Peter did?
Peter stared in the eyes of Rome and he says,
not only am I gonna let you crucify me,
I got a request, you crucify me upside down
for I am not worthy to die in like manner
to a resurrected king.
This is the same guy
that at one point couldn't stand up for Jesus
to a junior high girl.
Didn't have enough backbone to testify to a little girl
and now stares in front of the most impressive empire
the world has ever known.
And he says, boys,
I'd rather you watch me die in agony
than lie about the body.
I saw, I broke bread with him.
I saw him.
You remember Thomas?
We call him Doubting Thomas.
You know what he doubted?
The resurrection.
That's the only thing Thomas ever doubted
and he's now forever doubting Thomas.
Thomas said, I won't believe that he's resurrected
unless I can stick my finger
to where the nail went in his hand,
unless I can thrust my hand
to where the spear went to his side.
And your Bible says that Jesus came to a doubting Thomas.
And he said, Thomas, stick your finger right there.
Thrust your hand to where a spear went in my side.
And then he says this, Thomas, stop doubting and believe.
And you know what convinces me that Thomas actually slid his hand into Jesus' spear wound?
Church history tells you how Thomas died.
He died for preaching the resurrection by a spear wound.
Thomas, for preaching the message he once doubted, died by the same means that convinced him this message is real.
He said, I'd rather take a spear myself
than to take back my hand from his resurrected spear wound.
I'm telling you he's real.
I'm telling you he's alive.
And I'm telling you, you can make all your life on him.
Not just your eternity, but your social status.
What people think about you and they do not think about you.
Jesus Christ is worthy of it all.
He stands up to investigation.
And listen to me, this morning, if you'd say,
Kenan, you're preaching to me.
I've been tolerating these little foxes
that have been eroding my confidence in who Jesus is.
Or you'd say, Kenan, I want what Peter had.
I want what Thomas had.
I want a touch.
I want that same spirit that raised Christ from the dead to come and dwell in my mortal body.
If you'd say, Kenan, I want another level of boldness.
I'm tired of being bullied by fear.
I'm tired of not standing up for Christ when it's time to stand.
I'm tired of being tossed to and fro by every whimsical idea that I have.
I'm ready to stand on that solid rock, not just in a room like this.
You don't get brownie points for worshiping in here.
This is the easiest place to worship.
You know where it counts?
Out there.
And if you're saying, Kenan, I need that same spirit.
Whatever got a hold of Peter, whatever got a hold of Thomas,
whatever would cause John, after being boiled alive in oil,
surviving that oil, being exiled on an island called Patmos,
whatever would possess him to then write a book called Revelation,
I want that same spirit.
if you say Kenan you're preaching to me this morning with every eye open and every head up
no one trying to hide if you know I'm preaching to you I want you to throw your hand in the air
right now if you say Kenan I want another level of boldness I want another level of boldness I'm
tired of tolerating little foxes listen to me if your hands up get out of your seat and get to this
altar as fast as humanly possible get out of your seat and come to this altar I believe you're on the
other side of a move, on the other side of a physical act of obedience, the Spirit of God is
going to light on your mind like never before. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Press in,
press in, press in. Come on, press in. If you know I'm preaching to you this morning,
thank you for giving me a little extra time. I'm sorry. Press in, press in, press in. Father,
right now in the name of Jesus, I thank you for every young person under the sound of my voice.
God, I ask that you guard them, that you shore them up, that you put a hedge of protection around their mind, around their heart, around their spirit.
God, I call every little fox to die at the mention of the sound of the name of Jesus right now.
In the mighty name of Jesus, Lord, every wicked place of compromise, burn it out.
Burn it out.
Burn it out.
right now in the name of Jesus.
Come on, if you are receiving this right now,
I want every hand that's able to be lifted
to be lifted right now.
God, I am asking for a fresh wave of boldness
to come over your people like never before
from the front to the back
in the mighty name of Jesus.
In the mighty name of Jesus,
Lord, you see the sincerity of their faith.
Lord, that apart from you, they can do nothing.
God, I'm asking that this Winterfest
would be unlike any before.
that it would stick.
It would stick.
It would stick.
There's honey in the rock.
I'm asking for it to stick, Lord.
There is a balm in Gilead
and I am asking that it would stick this morning.
In the mighty and matchless name of Jesus, I pray.
Come on, let's just begin to worship.
Let's go in for a little while.
Come on, the road will be there when you get there.
Let's go, come on, come on, come on.
Thank you.